Arkansas Inmate Enjoys 23 Minutes of Freedom

TEXARKANA, Ark. (AP) - An Arkansas inmate enjoyed 23 minutes of freedom today that could cost him many more years behind bars. A prison spokeswoman says 31 year-old Joe D. Keaton was serving a 25-year sentence for a robbery conviction out of Miller County when he ran off from the Texarkana Work Release Center. Keaton was working a community job, cleaning rooms at a motel, when a prison van picked him up after work and dropped him off at the work release center about 6:40 p.m. Instead of checking into the center, Keaton ran to a nearby McDonald's restaurant and asked people there to give him a car and some money. Keaton, who may have had a knife, was given $20 before he took off. He ran behind an auto parts store, but a police officer spotted him. They got into "a tussle" before another officer arrived and Keaton was... [read full story]